November....

It's been a busy month so far. The farrier and the vet have both been here. Chad came and pulled Ziegy's and Tapper's shoes for the winter (as well as trimming the others). Jazz and Scotty are the only rideable horses now. Dolly still has shoes, but she's having other issues, more about that later... Chad and Tim came back another day to work with Scooby. Scooby has had a few issues. His sole has dropped again - why? who knows? Chad and Tim took 2 thick plastic pads and cut them into rim pads to make space between the sole and shoe. They then filled in the space with that pour in pad cushy stuff. Scooby is definitely feeling and moving better now which is all that matters. Scooby is 24 - 25 years old now. All I want to do is keep him comfortable for as long as possible.

Heather came out and did teeth floats on Maggie, Autumn, Dolly and Starlight and shots on most of the others. Starlight also needed her wolf teeth pulled. The really good news is that Blackberry is NOT PREGNANT!!! We thought she might be because before she came here she was out with Sparkie and a little mini stallion so I just wanted to know for sure one way or the other. At her age a pregnancy would have been risky so I'm very glad she's not!

Heather's assistant Kelly brought me a horseshoe flower. She enjoys blacksmithing (says she like to hammer out her frustration!) and makes flowers and other things. I gave her a bunch of old shoes this summer and she used Scooby's shoe for the center.

We are not sure what's going on with Dolly. She has not had a great summer. She's had a cough and runny nose which we thought might be allergies, but allergy meds didn't really help much. She has been off her feed, eating sometimes and not eating other times. She has been very quick to get out of breath and the last time we took her out - a short ride, at a walk, on a VERY cool day - she was huffing and puffing and sweating a lot. Heather couldn't find anything wrong on physical exam, so she took some blood to send off for testing. I'll let you know what happens.

Carla has had issues with a few horsey equipment malfunctions. We were about half way through a 2.5 hour ride with Jazz and Scotty and her rein fell off her bridle! She got off and tied it back on (the screw had fallen out and we didn't have another screw with us) and we contined on our way. We got about 3/4 of the way home and her other rein fell off!!!! What are the odds of that? Fortunately there was a lead rope in Scotty's pack and she was able to tie it together with the reins and ride him the rest of the way home. We are thinking it must be sabotage since both came off on the same ride. Carla has her own ideas of the guilty one, personally I think one of the garden gnomes did it!

Jim was here to help me get the site ready for the new run-in shed. He brought his loader so he could level a place with gravel and it really didn't take him long. We had to take down some fencing and all the gates that divided the barn yard into feeding stations. That system worked great this summer but would not have worked in the winter. It would have been too hard to keep the barn yard plowed with all that stuff in the way. The new shed is small, 8' x 10'. Ziegy eats in it morning and evening before going back out. Jazz and Scotty have no special place to eat now so I feed in shifts and they borrow stalls from Maggie and Autumn before going back out. It takes a little longer to do things in shifts but there is really no other way to feed everyone right now. Jim was also kind enough to repair our bench by putting a new top on it - Thank You!

Sadie has had a tough week. Tuesday evening she was in a lot of pain, panting, shaking, keeping her tail tucked between her legs, and not acting like her normal self. As time went on I noticed she was sitting with her legs out to one side or the other, again, not normal. Then she started being very wobbly behind while walking and crossed her hind feet and occasionally fell over. After 2 visits to the vet (one Wednesday and one Thursday) the diagnosis wasn't really good. It was obviously a problem with her spine, best case scenerio it is just a swollen disc putting pressure on her nerves. Worst case - a spinal tumor. She was given IV meds at the vets, and I am giving her three different meds here at home. The meds have definitely helped, she's walking more normally and is not in pain like she was. The question is what will happen when she goes off the meds? She's 15 years old (not a spring chicken), so the goal is to keep her comfortable but surgery is not an option for her. I will keep you posted on how things go for her.